Post Class 1: Process

Wow, have I been bad about keeping this build blog up to date!
So, here's where we stand:

The class finished up at the end of April. At that time the guitar was 'together' but not finished. Most of the pieces were in place and it could be played but the neck fit and playing action were pathetic. It was better as a lap steel than anything else with the action so high. But then I went to Spain for a few weeks and this got left by the wayside.

In June I got back together with the Instructor (Scott Dixon) to finish this up. Scott went out of his way to make sure that anyone from the class who wanted to come back and tweak their instruments was welcome to do so - free of charge. I have no idea how this guy is making any money off of this endeavor - but he's got another loyal and thankful customer in me. So, he and I tweaked the neck fit and the action so that it played like I prefer it to (neck relief, action, intonation, etc.).

In June and July I played the heck out of it. Keep in mind the guitar was complete (and it played well) but it was not finished. Literally. I had to put a protective finish on it. True to my previous builds I wanted to play this guy a little to see if there were any issues that should be resolved prior to putting a finish on it. This is partly practical and partly impatience. I really wanted to play this but once you go down the finishing path it's usually 3 weeks to a month before you play the guitar again. For me it usually ends up being 1 to 2 months for whatever reason. A few notes: It sounded amazingly 'woody' without a finish on it. And it sounded pretty close in character to my Larrivee - which is odd as the Larrivee isn't a dreadnaught and is made from solid rosewood back/sides as opposed to this guitar which is made from laminated mahogany (Sapele actually). The only thing these two had in common was the solid spruce top and that they were both being played by me.

In Mid-July I dissesembled the guitar and started the process of finishing it.